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User blog:AngelOfLight666/PE Proposal: Tong Po (Kickboxer original movies)
Hello there, today i'm going to make a proposal of a mostly obscure and unknown character from a fighting b movie series called Kickboxer. The villain himself is named Tong Po who by the way, needs more work in his page. Is also worth to mention, that the new version of the character from the remake has nothing to do with him here, and is a different character that doesn't even have a page here yet. But anyway, let's go on the proposal. WHO IS HE/WHAT HAS HE DONE He appears for the first time in Kickboxer (1989) being the long time undefeated Muay Thai Champion and enforcer for the Mob Boss Freddy Lee. When the american Kickboxing Champion Eric Sloane and his younger brother Kurt arrive in Thailand as a first step to taking on the world's greatest after Eric has beaten the best in the U.S., Kurt is the first one to witness both Tong Po's horrifying strength, skill and truly cruel and sadistic nature as he's warming up by kicking a solid pillar with his legs, denting it and causing plaster to fall from the ceiling. Horrified by this, Kurt begs Eric not to fight Tong Po, But Eric's pride and over confidence wins out. But no sooner does the match begin, Eric's strikes are useless, and Po maliciously brutalizes him with a series of moves that would be illegal in United States, like elbows and knees, instantly flooring him in the second round. Even when Kurt throws the towel in to stop the fight and save his brother's life, Po kicks it out and intentionally smashes his elbow into Eric's back, breaking his spinal cord and leaving him paralyzed forever. After a series of events, that include Kurt hardly training in Muay Thai by an old master of said martial art named Xian Chow, Kurt falls in love with the man's niece named Mylee, who is captured by Tong Po's henchmen and then raped by him. Tong Po and Freddy Lee send a formal request to Kurt's challenge, If only they fight in ancient way which means hands wrapped in rope, covered in broken glass. Kurt accepts despite Mylee's fear and Eric's protests. On the night of the fight, Freddy Lee tells Kurt to let Po beat him in all the rounds or else they'll execute Eric. The fight begins and with both their hands wrapped in glass, Tong Po takes great pleasure in savagely beating and slashing Kurt to a bloody mess, beating him with different limbs of his body in each round, and after that, he taunts Kurt, telling him the sheer pleasure he had in raping Mylee. Fortunately, Xian and Taylor rescue Eric and upon seeing his brother safe, Kurt's spirit is renewed and after having Mylee cut his ropes, He unleashes all skill and strength on Po, completely beating him senseless. The fight ends with Kurt launching Po out of the ring and finally knocking him out against a pillar and then Kurt finishes the job by knocking out Freddy Lee with a kick to the face. In Kickboxer 2, It is learned that while consumed with humiliation and rage, Tong Po had gunned down Kurt, Eric and Mylee in revenge when they were about to return to America, leaving only David, the youngest brother of the three to achieve vengeance. This however did not sit well with Sangha, One of Po's Managers who is a partner with Justin Makia who runs the UKA Kickboxing federation in America, Because they had been seeking a rematch to regain honor. After a series of schemes, which includes burning down David's gym while an innocent boy is inside ( David could not save him because the ones burning the gym broke his leg.), the final trap is using David's old student Brian. Brian (who's already made a name for himself in UKA) is suppose to fight a fellow UKA fighter for the Championship. But through Sangha's planning, the fighter is told he's been replaced due to illness, and Tong Po instead enters the ring, Much to the horror of Xian, who had come to train David, and the officials because Po is not registered to fight in the country. But despite protests, Sangha's men warn them off. The fight begins and Po brutally beats Brian bwith mostly movements that are illegal in the U.S., including knees, elbows and headbutts, despite the ref's objections, to the point that the fight must be stopped due to the several injuries that Brian has suffered, but even the ref is attacked and thrown out of the ring by Po who continues to heartlessly beat Brian in spite of David's attempts to stop the fight, until he kills him in front of an enormous audience, in where Brian's mom is watching. With no choice but to accept Tong Po's challenge, David prepares in the same ancient way Kurt did with his hands wrapped in glass. He meets Po in the ring with Sangha video taping the fight to show Thailand they regained honor. During the first round, Tong brutally beats down the youngest brother, and then mocks him by telling him that he's the weakest of all Sloanes. During the second round, David remembers his own words of wisdom and defeats him for the second time. Tong Po returns in the fourth movie, in where he is a drug dealer who kidnaps David's wife, and after he's defeated for the third time, he escapes and is never properly punished for his actions. STORY TYPE It's a serious story, and Tong Po's actions are played for drama. CHARACTER TRAITS/Moral agency Okay, Tong Po is not a character who likes to talk that much, but from the few lines that he has, his facial expressions and his evi laugh, he is obviously not a mindless beast, it's shown that he's aware of reality. Nothing suggests that he lacks a moral agency, he knows that what he's doing is wrong, and he takes advantage of the criminal power that he and his "mafia" have. Heinous standards? Okay, in the third movie, there's a sex slaver named Frank Lane who could also be considered PE, however, he doesn't appear in the same movies in which Tong Po appears, not to mention that Frank is not a fighter, while Tong Po is pretty much the only fighter in the entire series to be a truly sadistic psychopath. There are also Tong Po's henchmen with no personality, and Tong Po's managers, that barely are there and only organize the fights and some stereotypical mafia things, but is Tong Po who ordered the kidnap of Mylee for him to rape her, and he's the one who brutally tortures his rivals on the ring. mitigating factors?/REDEEMING QUALITIES? There's absolutely no information about his backstory, and even if he has a tragedy, he's not played for sympathy, he's played as a sadistic monster who doesn't care about rules and likes to cheat if that means that he can torture his rivals a bit more. In the first movie, during the last fight, Tong Po indicates which limb of his body will use to beat Kurt, but this, instead of being something that could be considered honorable, is done by him only to toy with Kurt, not to mention that in the last round, he indicates that he will use everything from kicks, to punches, to knees, to elbows and headbutts to brutally finish him. The only "redeeming quality" that you could possibly think that he has, is that he's a "stereotypical villain", but to be honest, there are many villains that could be considered similar to him in movies of that time, and pretty much none of them had done the things that he has done, even Chong Li from that other Van Damme's movie called Bloodsport is a saint compared to this guy. MORAL EVENT HORIZON If he didn't cross it at the beginning of the first film, when he intentionally paralyzes Eric forever, he surely did cross it when he raped Mylee, not to mention that then he mocked Kurt about this same action during the fight, literally saying "Mylee, good fuck", before laughing maniacally. In the second movie, when he kills Eric, Kurt and Mylee with a gun, it's flashback of Tong holding a gun while watching at Kurt's corpse is shown, which i think that is enough to qualify as his second or third MEH crossing. Finally, he brutally beats Brian to death in front of a giant audience, which includes his mother. INDIVIDUAL CAPABIlity Even though his managers, some of them mob bosses organize the fights, and his henchmen are the ones who kidnap people for him, he's the one who brutalizes his enemies in the ring, and the one who rapes his victims, not to mention that he's the one who orders most of the thing that these people do, and his existence on Thailand causes terror to all the people who live there. no sympathy No, not at all, he's never depicted sympathetically. SCREEN TIME Though is never shown how Mylee is raped (for obvious reasons), is shown how his henchmen kidnap her, he then slaps her, and breaks her clothes. In the second movie, though is not directly shown how he murders Eric, Kurt and Mylee, he's shown in a flashback with a gun looking at Kurt's lifeless body. The rest of his actions all films are shown on screen. CONCLUSION I think that is a solid "yes", i would like to know why he could not qualify. Category:Blog posts Category:Pure Evil Proposals Category:Finished Proposals